2nd June 2025 - Time On Range
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I finally found a range for air rifle shooting which felt like it 
fitted in with my time requirements. There are 2 about a mile away. 
The ideal has no spaces on the waiting list. A shame as it was a turn 
up and shoot affair. The second was specific times for specific 
specialisms, e.g. rim shot, air pistol and air rifle. The timings were 
a bit pants so it was going to be one of last resort. 

I have ended up at a club which is 12 miles away by Warwick. An easy 
and pleasant drive away so not bad. The ranges are open from 9 until 6 
each day in the summer half of the year. There is a social meet up bit 
on a Sunday morning. Seems to work. Ideal. I went down for a taster 
session yesterday to see how things worked out. 

The ranges are in the middle of the Warwickshire country side and were 
slightly awkward to find. Essentially, a long shed with 3 seperate 
shooting areas and then an office building. It is not grand but it has 
cover and ranges of 25m. The group of people were a lovely bunch 
although....yes... a group of near retired and retired men. Did 
they show grumpy old man opinions? Yes. Did they mention there was no 
woke stuff here? Yes. Of course they did. What they mean is that they 
want to joke around and be mean to one another in a banterish manner. 
To be fair, they were a good laugh and not punching down in their 
humour. The only time I was concerned was when they spoke about 
cyclists. Mind you, I have encountered some tossers on push bikes 
around that end of the world and I can sort of see. However, the roads 
are not made for cars and all that. 

I was offered the chance to play with some of their rifles. It was a 
prime chance to try a 500 pound or more valued rifle instead of what 
ever the local Scout camp has type of rifle. I got to play with a 
Weihrauch HK97 which is a spring powered affair. There is an under 
lever used to cock the rifle for loading as opposed to the usual break 
barrel affair. It was a nice change. Easy to cock and nice to fire. I 
then got a chance to play with a couple of PCP rifles. These are 
pre-charged ones which have a tank to provide the propellant instead 
of using a spring. These have small magazines and require a cocking 
lever to be pulled after each shot. The recoil is nothing. It is just 
not there with them. It feels a bit... clinical in many ways. The 2 
rifles were bull pups where the total length is reduced by not having 
a solid stock. However, one was much lighter than the other. The 
lighter one was used for hunting and so it makes sense it was selected 
for that. The heavier one was not as nice. The asthetics were lovely 
but it was effort to work with. It was nice having a chat about 
different rifles, styles and what not. I also did some good shooting 
considering I was using other people's rifles and not messing up their 
settings. I have decided to join. 

I had said I would not buy a rifle until I had somewhere to shoot it. 
Well, having found a range and club who would have me, I have ended up 
buying a Weihrauch HK97. It was fun to shoot although much heavier 
than I would like. It feels like the rifle is working with you rather 
than you working against the rifle. I have gone for the synthetic 
stock mostly due to cost. I also have a scope which was annoying to 
buy. Thankfully the shop I went to had helpful sales staff who could 
help find something reasonably cost effective and with good 
performance. I ended up with a Wulf Fireshot or something along those 
lines at 4-12x50 with AO. Yep, I am still rather baffled. The AO means 
adjustable 'focus' but has a name like parralax. The 50 is how large 
the bit pointing to what you want to see is in mm as a diameter. The 4 
is how many time magnification I think. Still not sure about the 12. 
Thankfully, the chap in the shop also fitted the scope and zeroed it 
in enough for me to do the last little bit. Saved some fun down the 
range but also meant I can only play with the scope while pointing the 
rifle at things. Sigh. New toy frustrations. I remain only able to use 
the range until weekends until I work out how to pay range fees for 
the year. I may have to dig out a cheque book for the first time in 10 
years. Madness!

So yes, I have a reason to get up early on Sundays. Shooting at 
targets and perhaps taking part in competitions for a laugh. Oh and 
drinking tea with a bunch of retired men who dislike cyclists.